Newsroom Stories

The Assembly Series, Washington University’s premier speaker series for more than 60 years, continues to bring distinguished experts, scholars and newsmakers to campus. The series — free and open to the public — explores universal concerns while it aims to promote deeper discussions across the Danforth and Medical campuses. The spring 2015 schedule begins at noon Thursday, Jan. 22, with sociologist and urban planner Xavier de Souza Briggs.

During the 1950s and ’60s, international abstraction played a crucial role in Cold War cultural politics. In St. Louis, Washington University emerged as one of the nation’s most important regional centers for postwar abstract art — in large part thanks to the efforts of curator William N. Eisendrath Jr. This spring, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will pay homage with “From Picasso to Fontana: Collecting Modern and Postwar Art in the Eisendrath Years, 1960-68.” 

It’s normal for a young child to have tantrums and be otherwise disruptive, but researchers have found that if such behavior is prolonged or especially intense, the child may have conduct disorder, a childhood psychiatric problem that could be a harbinger of antisocial behavior. The research was led by Joan L. Luby, MD (shown).

Norman R. Seay, a key figure in the struggle for desegregation in St. Louis, will receive the 2015 Rosa L. Parks Award at Washington University in St. Louis’ annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 19, in Graham Chapel. At the School of Medicine, St. Louis native Charles Stith will be the featured speaker at its commemoration at 4 p.m. Jan. 19 in the Eric P. Newman Education Center.

Washington University in St. Louis employees donated more than $778,000 to the 2014 United Way of Greater St. Louis workplace campaign, surpassing its goal by $68,000. The money will support 170 local agencies that address education, health, hunger, poverty, unemployment and other urgent issues.

Listening is a talent but also a skill. This spring, Andrew Raimist and Bob Hansman, both architecture faculty in Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, will lead “Community Building II: Ferguson,” a community studies class that explores the complex economic, political and racial landscape of north St. Louis.

Depression and behavioral changes may occur before memory declines in people who will go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research at the School of Medicine led by senior author Catherine M. Roe, PhD.

Math circles, which bring together professional mathematicians and young students, have been a part of mathematical culture in Russia since the 1930s and in Bulgaria for nearly a century. Washington University’s math circle, founded in 2002, gives kids a chance to meet a mathematician and to absorb his or her adventuresome and imaginative approach to solving problems.

More than 100 cancer patients have received an innovative form of radiation therapy at the S. Lee Kling Center for Proton Therapy in the center’s first year of operation. The treatments are provided at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Larry J. Shapiro, MD, has announced he will step down as executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of Washington University School of Medicine. He will continue at the helm until a national search is conducted and his replacement found.